Joni Ernst addresses role to lead Senate DOGE caucus: 'We are prepared to get to work'
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, discusses the Department of Government Efficiency's plan to cut federal spending on 'Hannity.'?
The Senate’s lead "DOGE" lawmaker said Friday that her quest for government efficiency is beginning to come full-circle, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture instituted a return-to-work mandate she said was first spurred by a 2024 whistleblower who contacted her office.
"The Trump administration, DOGE, and I are already racking up wins for taxpayers," Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital on Friday.
"Growing up on a farm, I know what working from home really means."
President Donald Trump, too, highlighted the difference between telework in white-collar jobs and Americans in agriculture and manufacturing who don’t have the luxury of working from a desk.
In remarks to reporters, Trump said that federal workers appear less productive when working from home and that the dynamic is "unfair to the millions of people in the United States who are, in fact, working hard from job sites and not from their home."
The Wilbur J. Cohen Building, Trump, Ernst (Getty)
He also warned federal workers they would have to report to the office or, "You’re fired."
In that regard, Ernst looked back on a whistleblower who came to her and alleged that USDA's District of Columbia offices were largely vacant.
That, she said, spurred her to outline policy proposals that eventually became "DOGE" – a term popularized by Trump ally Elon Musk.
"When I first discovered that the Department of Agriculture was a ghost town, I took action to end federal employees’ abuse of telework and get the agency working for Iowa farmers," said Ernst.
"I have put bureaucrats on notice that their four-year vacation is over, and we are just beginning to get Washington back to work and serving the American people."
A memo from Acting Agriculture Secretary Gary Washington obtained by Politico on Thursday ordered senior staff "with assigned duty stations" to work from their offices full-time. Additional guidance would follow for workers without a preassigned workstation.
Ernst characterized the memo as that full-circle moment.
DOGE SENATOR SEEKS TO ENSURE FEDS CAN CONTINUE PURSUING COVID FRAUDSTERS, DEBTORS AS IG SOUNDS ALARM
Ernst reportedly brought up her early concerns about teleworking bureaucrats and unused Washington office space running up tabs on the federal ledger during a meeting with Trump and Musk at Mar-a-Lago last year.
She previously compiled a report following an investigation into government waste and abuse through which $2 trillion in savings could be realized if the issues were addressed.
In a December statement highlighting that report, the House Budget Committee – now led by Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas – said the Biden administration’s condoning of mass telework "generated complacency in the workforce while costing taxpayers billions in unnecessary maintenance and upkeep costs."
"Early success means there is much more to come," a person familiar with the Senate’s DOGE work added.
According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, only 11% of the USDA's office space was occupied in the first quarter of 2023, and 75% of available space across 17 federal agencies has remained empty since the pandemic.
Ernst built her initial pre-formal-"DOGE" probes off of the USDA whistleblower, which is why she believes the latest development mandating return-to-work for agriculture bureaucrats is the issue now coming full-circle.
Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., – the chairman and founder of the DOGE Caucus – praised Ernst's work and said taxpayers deserve to have a government operating at "full capacity."
"President Trump’s executive order requiring federal employees to return to work is the first step in improving government efficiency."
"This is just common sense, and the exact type of waste DOGE will continue to crack down on," Bean said.
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Ernst’s first DOGE "win" came with the passage of an otherwise Democrat-favored bill named for former President Joe Biden’s longtime friend Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and signed as both Delawareans were departing public service.
Within the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act was a provision to compel the General Services Administration to sell the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building.
The block-long "stripped classicist" building southwest of the U.S. Capitol was designed by Philadelphia architect Charles Z. Klauder in the 1930s, and originally hosted the Social Security Administration.
However, its total occupancy dwindled to 2% – largely Voice of America workers – by 2025.
Another "DOGE" amendment sponsored by Ernst that requires agency oversight and reporting regarding telework was successfully added to a major appropriations bill passed in December.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment for purposes of this story but did not receive a response by press time.
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